1. Field
The disclosure relates to a method, system, and an article of manufacture for utilizing host memory from an offload adapter.
2. Background
A network adapter may be coupled to a host system to provide network communications. Some network adapters may provide hardware support for the processing of packet data and control data related to the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol that may be used for network communications. Such network adapters may be referred to as TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) adapters. Further details of the TCP/IP protocol are described in the publication entitled “Transmission Control Protocol: DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification,” prepared for the Defense Advanced Projects Research (RFC 793, published September 1981).
TOE adapters may perform all or major parts of the TCP/IP protocol processing, whereas other network adapters may perform transmission and reception of network packets and provide some support for checksum offloading or fragmentation and reassembly of packets. High speed switching technologies, such as, Gigabit Ethernet, may be used for connecting the host system to a network. As a result a TOE adapter coupled to the host system may have to handle a large number of network connections. The flow of packets to and from the host system in such high speed switching technologies may be high. The TOE adapter may be required to process a large number of packets at a rate that is adequate for the flow of packets. Further details of the TOE adapter in the Gigabit Ethernet environment are described in the publication entitled “Introduction to the TCP/IP Offload Engine” available from the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (published April, 2002).